A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for a universal output driver, especially to a universal output driver existing in a computer network for exempting a local host computer from installing the driver of a selected output device.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Outputting a document from a remote output device, such as printer, viewer, overhead projector, or fax machine, has been an essential part in office automation. A document can be conveniently sent from a local host computer to a remote output device via Local Area Networks, Wide Area Networks or Internet either for printing or viewing. For this purpose, the driver of a selected output device must be installed in a local host machine before the document can be outputted at the remote site in a desired format.
When the document is sent to the remote site, the local host computer conducts a handshaking with the driver of the selected output device for converting the document to the format acceptable by the remote output device driver. In such cases, the local host computer has to install various drivers depending on what output device has been selected. The disadvantage is that when a user selects a desired output device, which may be a laser printer, a dot printer, an overhead projector, a viewer, or a fax machine, the local host computer may not always have the proper driver available. Moreover, since the conversion is handled in the local computer before transmission, the data size usually will increase. Consequently, the transmission time will inevitably increase.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for a universal output driver which can simulate the driver of a selected output device in a computer network without having to actually install the selected output device driver in a local host machine, thereby to simplify the operations of the document output.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for a universal output driver which can optimize a document output according to the properties of a remote output device and supported resources before transmission, thereby to minimize the data size and the transmission time.
Briefly described, the present invention encompasses a system and method for a universal output driver. The inventive system and method simulate the actions of a selected output device driver, and then record all the request and information for the document output. The quality and size of the document output are optimized according to the properties of the selected output device driver and supported resources before it is sent to the selected remote output device. When the document output data is sent to the remote site, it is restored and converted to a format acceptable by the selected output device driver for outputting a document of desired format and quality. The inventive method and system for the universal output driver facilitate the operations of network outputting. Moreover, the invention can optimize the document output in accordance to the properties of the selected output device, thereby to ensure the quality of document output and increase the transmission speed.